How Good Is This CPU?

Nick.D

Member
Yet another question about my cpu (Just about everything I've posted on here is about this same darn processor)...

Right now I have the Intel Xeon w3550, and it just isn't able to run a lot of the games I want it to.
I know the then Xeons aren't meant for running games, but that's all I've got.

The upgrade I'm looking at is the Xeon x5960--I've found a few for sale for pretty cheap, and it's the best CPU that will work with my mobo.

Here are a few of the games I want to run:
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Fallout 4
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (I've ran this game for nearly 100 hours with my current CPU, but it apparently isn't as good as the minimum requirements...)
Ark: Survival Evolved (Ran this one for 300+ hours, but again, still apparently under the requirements)
Etc.

Current specs:
GeForce GTX 970
Intel Xeon w3550
32mb RAM
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
How much? You'd see an improvement yeah but really depends on price if it's worth it. As old as the system is I'd save for a new platform.
 

Intel_man

VIP Member
You'll see a bit of performance increase... worth a $100? maybe. You're going from a Nehalem/Bloomfield to a Westmere architecture. You benefit from a few years later architecture design, but compare to the current line of processors from AMD/Intel, you can see the performance gap in it's single core performance. It "kinda" makes up for it with 6 cores/12 threads if applications are programmed to use all 12 threads but ONLY if the program is properly coded for multi-thread use.

The Xeon branding is primarily just telling people that these chips are workstation ready, meaning they're usually compatible with enterprise/corporate features like ECC Memory support, beefier IMC to support higher capacity RAM, and possibly other proprietary virtualization enhancements that are usually disabled in their "Core i" products. CPU performance wise, if there's a "Core i" counterpart that is exactly the same spec then the chances are they're both the same chip with certain features disabled. Which in your case, the X5690 has a counterpart equivalent as the Core i7 990X but with dual socket support and a more robust IMC.

There are certainly some high end Xeon chips that are purely for server use and does not have any Core i counterparts and those are what you have described them as... "not for gaming".
 

Nick.D

Member
I do wish I could just get an entirely new computer, but that's much too expensive for me. Even the $100 is a bit much at the moment, but I think I could manage.
While incredibly off-topic, the fact that I'm immigrating to a new country soon should explain why I don't have much to spare for computers--it's incredibly expensive.

I'm just looking for something that will be able to run games better than my current cpu.
Games are usually a little vague with their recommendations, most of the ones I want just reccomend "Intel Core i7 or equivalent"

Were it not obvious, I'm a bit of a moron when it comes to processors (and computers in general, sadly) so I'm not sure on what CPUs are equivalent to that or not.
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
If you don't see yourself spending money on a new platform then yeah might be worth it. What CPU cooler do you have? Overclocking would help.
 

Intel_man

VIP Member
Yea OC helps. I wouldn't go past 4.2ghz on that X5690 though because you'll end up bumping that voltage up a lot to make it run.
 

Nick.D

Member
Factory cooler, I haven't replaced that.
Despite any previous posts I've made on the subject, I'm not overheating as bad as I used to think.

The max Tcase temp for the w3550 is 67.9 Celsius, and I was having trouble keeping the temperatures on OpenHardware Monitor below that.

OpenHardware Monitor shows the Tjunction temperature, however, so I'm actually doing alright on temperatures.
 
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